That's actually a very reasonable price considering what it does. It certainly doesn't put it in the ILM's only bracket, and could easily be justified to a production when compared to the cost of building cities the usual way (probably 5 to 10 times that, if not more). It's man hours that are the biggest overhead and this takes them down to one bod's worth plus perhaps a wiggeter (adding detail). But yes, it does take it out of the unpaid market, unless they offer a 'City Engine Lite' at some point (perhaps with limited poly counts and features - you never know). Fingers crossed.